Lorine Garrett
1928-2019
Lorine Garrett, 90, of Snyder, died Friday, March 22, 2019 at Cogdell Memorial Hospital.
Funeral service for Mrs. Garrett will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Bell-Cypert-Seale Funeral Home Chapel with Bob Martin and Darrell Chappell officiating. Burial will follow at Snyder Cemetery.
Visitation will be held from 6-7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Dick Gray
1919-2019
Longtime Snyder resident Paul Novell “Dick” Gray passed away at his home Tuesday, March 26, 2019.
A celebration of life service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Bell-Cypert Seale Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow at Hillside Memorial Gardens.
Visitation will be held from 6-7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Born on Dec. 15, 1919 at home in the country outside Proctor, Dick was the third of nine children of Rush Oliver Gray and Gertrude “Gertie” Dean (Woolsey) Gray. He graduated from Comyn High School when there were only 11 grades to complete for graduation, a fact that he said “suited him just fine.”
Dick’s early years during the Depression were spent working wherever he could find a job to be able to send money back home. Those stints in Houston, Borger, Monahans, Eunice, N.M. and California were precursors to what formed Dick’s drive and devotion to succeed.
That work ethic followed Dick his whole life and that is how he’ll be remembered by those who knew him. Finding work harder and harder to get, he and his three best friends decided to “get steady, easy work” and, together, they enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force on June 3, 1941 and joined the 2nd Service Squadron, 46th Group and were sent to Kelly Field in San Antonio.
In 1941, at a dance in Hondo, Dick met the love of his life, Alice. But with the outbreak of World War II and about to be shipped overseas to the Philippines, he asked Alice to wait for him and said if he made it back home, he wanted her to marry him. At the war’s end, Staff Sgt. Paul Gray was honorably discharged on Jan. 13, 1946 and headed home to Alice. Four days after his discharge, on Jan. 17, 1946, Dick and Alice were married in Llano and the Gray family odyssey began.
The two moved to Eunice, N.M., where Dick worked for Samedan Oil Company until he moved Alice and new son, Rodney, to a Phillips Petroleum Company oil camp outside Goldsmith. In December 1952, son Gordon was born and in mid-1953, the family moved to Snyder and Dick joined Burdell Oil Company and his mentor, Elmer Cook. Burdell dissolved, but Dick continued work in the oil business and over the years, he, along with Alice and other partners, founded and were the principals of Paul Gray Oil Company, Dick and Bill Roustabout Crews, TransTexTool Company, Submersible Services, Inc., as well as other oilfield related businesses. He loved working until the night he passed away and couldn’t have loved his Paul Gray Farms operation, his oil business, nor his family more. He was a conservative, save-everything-to-repurpose-later kind of guy, who was also a no-nonsense, get it done, self-made man, and a throwback of the nearly 100 years that he lived, and a man who had a catalog memory that served him until death. As he always said upon ending a conversation, “I’ll be around, somewhere.” And he will always be that, in our hearts and memories.
Dick was preceded in death by his wife, best friend and partner in all things, Alice, on July 26, 2000; his parents; all eight of his siblings, in birth order, Ruby, Winnie, Hazel, Jack, R.O. “Junior,” Joe, Melba and Ruth Ann; and many members of their extended families.
Survivors include his sons Rodney of Aledo and Gordon of Snyder and their wives, Mary and Barbara; his grandson, Brandon and Erin Sopronyi of Lubbock; his grandson, Stafford and his wife, Megan, and great-granddaughters, Caroline and Charlotte, all of Lonoke, Ark.; Alan and his wife, Jerica, and great-granddaughter, Piper, all of Snyder; and his grandson, Spencer and his fiancé, Danielle Sears, of Ira; and his nieces and nephews, who really loved their Uncle Dick.
Special thanks to Peaches Coward, who cared for Dick as if he was her own family and they regularly got into heated games of 31 and dominoes.
Memorials may be made to to VFW organizations, the Scurry County Senior Citizens Center, Cogdell Memorial Hospital, Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, West Texas Rehab or a charity of choice.
Online condolences may be posted at www.bellcypertseale.com.
Joel Griffin Jr.
1956-2019
Joel Wayne Griffin Jr., 62, of Abilene, died Thursday, March 21, 2019 in a Lubbock hospital.
Graveside service for Mr. Griffin will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Ross Cemetery annex in Baird with Dr. Phil Christopher officiating. The service will be under the direction of Bailey Howard Funeral Home in Clyde.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in the First Baptist Church Chapel in Abilene.
Born on June 15, 1956 in Snyder to Joel Wayne Griffin Sr. and Lois “Shine” Loraine (Henry) Griffin, he attended Snyder High School and graduated from Texas State Technical College with his certification in heating and air conditioning. He worked as a welder in the oilfield for many years and was a member of Cherry Heights Baptist Church in Clyde.
He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, William Larmer Griffin.
Survivors include his sister, Julia Diane Griffin of Abilene, his aunt and uncle, James and Dorothy Reynolds of Rowden, and numerous cousins.
Online condolences may be made at www.baileyhowardfuneralhome.com.
Max von Roeder
1932-2019
Max von Roeder passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, March 24, 2019.
Funeral service for Mr. von Roeder will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at Trinity United Methodist Church with the Rev. Larry Rodgers officiating. A reception in the fellowship hall will follow the service. A private family graveside service will follow the reception under the direction of Bell-Cypert-Seale Funeral Home.